Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-10-05

letters to convert "privateer," into
"pirate," and it was q very short
time before Teach made that change.
Not only did he make it himself, but
he persuaded his old captain to join
with him. =.
And now fairly began that series Of
bold and lawless depredations which
have made his name so justly famous,
and which placed him amongst the
very greatest of NARROWING freeboot-
ers.
"Our hero" says the old historian
who sings of the arms and bravery Of
this great man-"Our hero assumed
the cognomen of Blackboard, from
that large quantity of hair which,
like frightful meteor, covered his
whole face, and frightened America
more than any comet that appeared
there in a long time. He was accus-
toned to twist it with ribbons into
small tails, after the manner of our
Families wig, and turn them about
his ears. In time of action he wore
a sling over his shoulders, with three
braces of pistols hanging in holsters
like bandoleers he stuck lighted
matches under his hat, which, ap-
apeasing on;each side of his face, and
his eyes naturally looking fierce and
wild, made him altogether such q
figure that imagination cannot form
an idea of a Fury from hell to look
more frigtful."
The night before the day Of the
action in which he was killed, he sat
drinking with some congenial COM
pany until broad daylight. One Of
them asked him if his poor young
wife knew where his treasure was
hidden. "No." says Blackboard;
"nobody but the devil and / knows
where it is, and the longest liver
shall have ALL"
For a time Blackboard worked at
his trade down on the Spanish Main,
gathering, in the few years he was
there, a very neat little fortune in
the booty captured from sundry ves-
sells; but by-and.by he took it into
his head to try his luck along the
coast of the Carolinas so off he sail
ed to the northward with quite q re-
spectacle little fleet, consisting of his
own vessel and two captured sloops.
From that time he was actively en-
gagged in the making of American
history in his small way.
He first appeared off the bar at
Charleston harbor, to the no small
excitement Of the worthy town Of
that ilk, and there he lay for five or
six days, blockading the port and
stopping incoming and outgoing
vessels at his pleasure, so that, for
the time, the commerce of the pro-
vince was entirely paralyzed. All
the vessels so stopped he held as
prizes, and all the crews and pas
sengers (among the latter of whom
was more than one provincial worthy
of the day. he retained as though
they were prisoners of war.
And it was a nightly awkward
thing for the good folks of Charles
ton to behold, day after day, black
flag with its white skull and cross
bones fluttering at the fore of the
pirate captains craft, over across the
level stretch Of green salt-marshes,
and it was nightly unpleasant, too,
to know that this or that prominent
citizen was crowded down with the
other prisoners under the matches.
Becoming tired of an inactive life,
Blackboard afterWard resumed his
piratical career. He cruised around
in the rivers and inlets and sounds
of North Carolina for while, ruling
the roost, and with never one to
say him nay, until there was no
bearing with such pest any longer.
So they sent a deputation up to the
governor of Virginia asking if he
would be pleased to help them in
their trouble.
There were two men of war lying
at Kicquetan, in the James river, at
the time. TO them the governor of
Virginia applied, and plucky Lieu
tenant Maynard, of the Pearl, was
sent to Ocracoke Inlet to fight this
pirate who ruled it down there so
like the cock of a walk. There he
found Blackboard waiting for him,
as ready for fight as ever the lieu
tanant himself could be. Fight
they did, and while it lasted it was
as pretty a piece of business of its
kind as one could wish to see. Black
beard drained glass of grog, wish
ing the lieutenant luck in getting
aboard of him, fired a broadside,
blew some twenty of the lieutenant's
men out of existence, and totally
crippled one of his little sloops for
the balance of the fight. After that,
and under cover of the smoke, the
pirate and his men boarded the other
sloop, and then followed fine old
fashioned hand-to-hand conflict be-
twixt them and the lieutenant.
First they fired their pistols, and
then they took to it with cutlasses-
right, left, up and down, cut and
slash-until the lieutenant's cutlass
broke short off at the hilt. Then
Blackboard would haye finished him
off handsomely, only up steps one OF
the lieutenant's men and fetches him
a great slash over the neck, so that
the lieutenant came off with no more
than a cut across the knuckles.
At the very first discharge of their
pistols Blackboard had been shot
through the body, but he was not
for giving up for that-not he. AS
said before, he was of the true roar:
ing, raging breed of pirates, and stood
up to it until he received twenty
more cutlass cuts and five additional
shots, and then he fell dead while
trying to fire off an empty pistol.
After that the lieutenant cut off the
pirates head and sailed away in
triumph, with the bloody trophy
nailed to the bow of his battered
sloop.
ABUSING WASHINGTON.
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